You need to stay connected with your customers, partners, and employees to keep your business running smoothly. However, personal phone lines just don’t meet the needs of operations that want to stay productive and professional.
Also, you don’t have tons of free time to spend investigating each of the small business phone plans out there. If you’re like many small business owners, your work schedule could easily surpass 50 or 60 hours a week.
What criteria make for a quality phone service?
Our team has decades of experience helping businesses discover essential communications solutions. Use the following guidelines that we’ve found are critical to identifying the top small business phone plans.
Key Takeaways:
- A business phone service is necessary because it boosts your productivity and makes you look more professional.
- Review small business phone plans that have outstanding security, support, and reliability.
- Look for a plan with custom pricing for add-ons.
- Your phone provider should offer advanced features like productivity app integrations, collaborative video conferencing, and user-friendly desktop and mobile apps.
Reasons To Research Small Business Phone Plans
The best small business phone plans make your business better for at least two key reasons: professionalism and productivity.
Professionalism
A dedicated business line projects a professional image and commitment to your organization. This professionalism helps you attract and retain clients.
If you and your team take all calls on personal cellphones, customers may view you as a shoestring operation that is incapable of handling critical needs. Communication can break down quickly without a unified communications system.
For example, what happens if an employee of yours takes an extended leave or is no longer with your organization?
If the only number your clients have is the personal number of that contact, you could lose valuable business. Days or weeks might go by before the customer reaches an available team member.
Your business phone plan keeps communications consistent and in-house, protecting your professional relationships.
Productivity
Top small business phone plans offer features that take your efficiency to another level. Unlike cellphone and home phone service providers, small business phone plans keep your needs as a proprietor in mind.
For example, you can integrate business apps into your service. These integrations simplify and speed up the data collection process.
Also, you control the conversations that occur over your lines. No matter who comes and goes from your company, you have a record of what went on and can follow up without major disruptions.
Features To Look For in Small Business Phone Plans
Ensure any small business phone plans you consider have the following features.
Security
Your business phone system allows you to define access controls for each team member. You keep sensitive information away from those who shouldn’t see it and ensure high-level employees can get the data they need without jumping through too many hoops.
Additionally, data servers back up your information so that you have protected cloud access to your phone system wherever you have internet and a secure device.
Business phone systems also use advanced encryption technology to protect calls from eavesdropping and interception. Your confidential conversations stay safe in transit and at rest.
Video Conferencing
Video calls help you connect face to face without the expense of travel. Remote teams can collaborate easily and make stronger connections.
Plus, professional video conferencing services offer you advanced recording and transcription features that you can quickly reference later. You also have collaborative features for productivity during team meetings.
Custom Pricing
Cash flow is always a concern for entrepreneurs. Small business phone plans should be open about their pricing and allow you to add or remove additional features as you desire.
Unlimited calling should be standard, as well as common functions, such as caller ID, an auto attendant, and call blocking. Your provider should then customize and add features that offer you archiving, faxing, and adding additional phone numbers as you request them.
Support
No provider can guarantee perfect service without any issues. New technologies will inevitably hit bumps in the road.
The question is: How fast will your service provider respond to your request for help? You also need to be sure that your provider keeps you in the loop about progress on a resolution.
Even better is when your provider notifies you of an issue before you have an unpleasant surprise. A conscientious phone vendor notifies you through the channels you choose so you can get prompt attention and support.
User-Friendly Apps for Mobile and Desktop
More teams are in remote and hybrid setups. Cloud small business phone plans allow your workforce to operate equally well from a company office, on the road, or at home.
The quality of communications depends on more than the internet connection. Your communications services apps should keep everything organized in a central location.
When you move from your cell to your desktop, all contacts and conversations are in the app and ready to go.
Reliability
Communication is the core of all business, and your company can’t afford to go long without connectivity. Ensure your service will be reliable and not leave you stranded for hours.
True, no tech is perfect, but top small business phone plans offer service-level agreements that guarantee less than 30 seconds of downtime each month.
Business App Integrations
You should be able to run your business your way and use your preferred productivity software. That software must work together with your communications services to simplify collecting and retrieving essential data.
Your business phone service should integrate with the top customer support, experience, and relationship management apps. If pre-built integrations aren’t available for your favorite programs, the service should offer an API platform that allows you to develop custom solutions.
Intermedia: Provider of the Industry’s Top Small Business Phone Plans
You could spend hours searching through small business phone plans trying to find the best. Fortunately, the ideal solution is right under your nose.
Intermedia offers user-friendly, secure, and reliable phone service that is convenient and cost-effective. Schedule a call to discuss which of our small business phone plans is right for you.
Mariel Santos
Mariel Santos is the Director of Marketing Communications at Intermedia
July 10, 2023
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